Google is getting ready to replace with Dennis Woodside, Google's former head of ad sales in the Americas and overseer of the Google-Motorola merger, according to a report.

Woodside would run the Motorola unit of Google once the deal closes, Bloomberg reported, citing several unnamed sources. Woodside was on a short list that included Motorola Senior Vice President Christy Wyatt and Chief Strategy Officer John Bucher, Bloomberg reported.

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Woodside became president of the Americas region for ad sales in 2009, when Tim Armstrong left to head AOL. In overseeing the Motorola merger, Woodside has reported to Google CEO Larry Page and CFO Patrick Pichette.

Bloomberg said neither Google nor Motorola would comment on the report. In a statement sent to CNET, Motorola would say only that "Sanjay is fully engaged, focused on running the business and getting the deal closed."

The Justice Department gave the greenlight to Google's $12.5 billion buyout of Motorola on February 13. The European Union OK'ed the deal on the same day. The main reason Google is buying Motorola is to get access to the company's big patent portfolio. And the Justice Department concluded in its investigations that it was unlikely that Google would use these patents to "raise rivals' costs or foreclose competition."

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Edward Moyer is an associate editor at CNET News and a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world. He enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch.
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